


Phil's Summer Job

by americanphancakes



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, First Meetings, Fluff, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 04:36:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15380793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/americanphancakes/pseuds/americanphancakes
Summary: Phil gets a job as a barista and wants to learn how Dan does that cool latte art. Cuteness ensues.





	Phil's Summer Job

**Author's Note:**

> I’m the only person left in the Phandom who hasn’t written a coffeeshop AU so... here’s that!
> 
> Am I a real phanfic author now lol

Phil didn’t mean to make such a mess, but slime is messy business and his channel needed the content. Unfortunately, getting glitter and glue out of carpet proved to be… costly. So Phil figured he’d get a summer job to augment what little he gets from his videos these days. He passed by a coffee shop with a “Help Wanted” sign in the window and applied there.

And now, today’s his first day.

“You’re the new guy?” Dan says, tying his apron behind his back.

“Uh, yeah. I’m Phil. Nice to meet you!”

“You too,” Dan says, shaking Phil’s hand and smiling.

“You’re the manager on duty today then?”

“Yup. Not that I have much power around here, I can only really tell you what to do during your shift.”

“Sounds like you have  _ all _ the power to me,” Phil says with a chuckle.

“I’m probably not supposed to tell you this,” Dan says, “but if you just didn’t do anything useful, I wouldn’t have the power to write you up or anything. All I could do is tell Michelle. I’m pretty low level.”

Phil smiles. “Fair enough.”

 

***

 

They’re just about done with their shift for the day as Dan makes the last latte of the evening.

“How do you do that?” Phil asks.

“What?”

“The art on the top of the drink. That’s like… wizard magic. I’ve always loved that, but I’ve never understood how to make that happen.”

“Did you want me to show you?”

“What, show me how to…”

“How to do latte art, yeah.”

“Sure!”

Dan brews a shot of espresso and pours it into a big round mug.

“First off, it’s way easier to do it in a big round mug like this. You can still do it in a tall cup, but you’re just getting started so you need a bigger canvas than that.”

Phil nods. “Okay.”

Dan grabs the pitcher of steamed milk. “Oh yeah, um, you gotta have the steamed milk ready. The espresso will get all gross really fast, so.” He pours the steamed milk in, gradually lowering the pitcher closer to the mug. He starts wiggling the pitcher from side to side, making a pretty soft zig-zag of white across the top of the coffee.

“It’s so pretty!” Phil says.

“This really is magic to you, isn’t it? This is literally the easiest art to do.”

“Yeah but how?”

“Look I’m not gonna pretend to understand physics, yeah? But when you bring the milk pitcher closer to the mug, it’s like it pours slower or something so it doesn’t mix in with the espresso. It stays on the surface. It does have to be steamed milk though ‘cause that’s what makes it all bubbly and light enough to float on top in the first place.”

“Can I try one?”

“Yeah, not really any other way to learn,” Dan chuckles.

“Uh, okay…” Phil hesitates as he looks around and take stock of what’s in front of him. He gathered from Dan’s mini-lesson that he had to act fast before the espresso “got all gross.”

He starts steaming some more milk first so it’s ready. Dan reaches over and takes the steaming wand from his hand.

“Here, you gotta… like this…” Dan lowers the wand to the bottom of the pitcher and slowly raises it up. Phil smiles bashfully, and then Dan leaves him to it.

Phil then brews an espresso shot. While it’s still brewing, he frantically grabs a mug from the tray of clean mugs on the other side of the counter. He pours the finished espresso shot into the mug, pours the steamed milk in - gradually lowering it, like Dan had done - and experiments a bit with the pouring motion. He wiggles the pitcher back and forth, but then returns to the middle of the cup making a giant white dot in the middle. It’s little more than a circle with other concentric circles around it, but it looks kind of cool.

“I did it!” he says happily. “I made a thing!”

Dan smiles warmly at him, finding his excitement infectious.

“Here’s another trick.”

Dan grabs a toothpick and swipes down through Phil’s design, turning the vague circle shape into a heart shape, the concentric circles turning into a sort of motion blur where the heart seems to be fluttering.

Dan looks at Phil to see his reaction. Phil is gazing at it with a hint of a smile, like it’s a pencil portrait or something.

“Hey,” Dan says, trying to get Phil’s attention. “I just turned that into a heart.”

“Yeah?”

Dan raises his eyebrows and nods as if to say “okay now keep following that logic.”

“It’s... so you’re… oh!”

“Yeah, ‘oh!’” Dan laughs.

“Are you flirting with me?”

“Yes. You’re cute and I’m not so good with words so… yeah, I…” Dan actually facepalms at his own cringiness. “Apparently I did that. Oh my god, I’m sorry, this was a stupid idea. Could I be any more cheesy and vague?”

“Just ask the guy out already!” the one remaining customer shouts from their table.

“Which one are you talking to?” Dan says.

“Either one, doesn’t matter. Just get it over with, this is painful.”

Dan and Phil both laugh.

“So um,” Phil says, “do you wanna go get-- ugh I was going to say coffee just then, can you believe that?”

Dan smiles and shakes his head. “You’re as awkward as I am.”

“Makes us a good pair, huh?”

“Probably. So… dinner then?”

“Yeah. Dinner.”

“Thank god,” the customer says.

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> (I don't know if this is really how you do latte art, this is just what I've seen watching baristas do it lol)
> 
> Tumblr: @fluffyamericanphancakes


End file.
